final internet news for 2002

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.com.au>]

Hi all

This will be the final news for 2002! So, for those who are
celebrating the holiday season, have a great christmas and
new year, and no doubt I'll continue to post the news in
2003!

And for any who are interesting in using the news in some
way on a commercial basis, I am always interested in
talking to you.

Cheers
David

Couple grew wealthy on worldwide web of filth
WHEN postal investigators in America raided the home of a
wealthy suburban couple they discovered the credit card
numbers of 300,000 paedophiles around the world.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,172-517571,00.html

1,200 arrested in British paedophile raids
MORE than 1,200 teachers, doctors, care workers and
policemen have been arrested across the United Kingdom in
raids against paedophiles who had used an American internet
service. 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,172-517566,00.html

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=362597

http://www.guardian.co.uk/child/story/0,7369,861870,00.html
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2583383.stm

Libel - Libel is not the sort of tourism that countries
want to encourage
IT TOOK only (a reported) five internet hits in Melbourne
for Australia’s highest court to compel Dow Jones, the US
publishers of the US financial publication Barrons
Magazine, to be dragged half way round the globe to defend
an article written for its overwhelmingly US audience. “The
outcome: a result contrary to intuition” is how Mr Justice
Kirby felt constrained to describe his own decision. 
 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,200-515908,00.html

Internet libel law shake-up urged
A shake-up of libel law is needed to protect free speech on
the internet, according to a new report be the Law
Commission.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2587057.stm
 http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2127777,00.html

Internet libel laws 'stifling freedom of expression'
English law on libel and the internet may conflict with the
right to freedom of expression in the European convention
on human rights, the law commission says today. 

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/media/story/0,12123,862044,00.html

The web needs its own police
The high court of Australia (in Gutnick v Dow Jones: see
Online on the web, December 11) has done us all a favour by
declaring that anyone publishing information on the
internet could face legal proceedings anywhere in the
world. This is not because the ruling - which has triggered
a tidal wave of apoplexy among seasoned net users all over
the world - is the right one. It will in any case go to
appeal. The reason it is important is that it could be the
start of some serious thought about a space that has become
a no-go area for rational thinking.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,862234,00.html

Report backs ISP libel law claims
Internet service providers have welcomed today's law
commission report into the murky area of internet libel but
warned that it should be extended to cover other
problematic areas such as copyright and racism where they
are also required to act as "judge and jury" under current
law.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,862255,00.html

Free Speech -- Virtually
Hundreds of thousands of people have been drawn to the
realm of digital publishing called Web logs, or "blogs."
But few seem to know that the same law that relates to
publishing in the offline world, generally speaking,
applies to material posted publicly on these online
journals.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9204-2002Dec18.html

Press freedoms caught in Web
It has been a sacred truth from its earliest days that the
World Wide Web is the ultimate publishing medium, a
liberator of information, a force for global justice and a
leveler of political tyrannies.

http://rtnews.globetechnology.com/servlet/ArticleNews/tech/RTGAM/20021213/gtcybdec13/Technology/techBN/

U.S. court says no to Web libel lawsuit
Less than a week after Australia's high court issued a
ruling suggesting that online publishers are fair game for
libel suits anywhere their content appears, a U.S. federal
court has veered in the opposite direction.
 http://news.com.com/2100-1023-978069.html

Internet plan under attack
A bill that would hold the operators of Web sites and
Internet providers in Finland liable for what their users
say is being criticized as a way to muzzle freedom of
speech.
 http://www.iht.com/articles/80677.html
 http://www.helsinki-hs.net/news.asp?id=20021216IE5

EU ISPs wary of playing judge
A European Union directive compels ISPs to take down a Web
site that carries copyright-protected or illegal material.
The ISPs have been hit by a barrage of such requests, but
they are reluctant to play judge and jury.

http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2002/0212171156.asp?A=INT&S=Internet&T=News&O=ST

Snooping system is illegal, say police
Surveillance powers allowing law enforcement agencies to
access the communications records of telephone and internet
users are in such a legal mess that they are untenable, one
of Britain's most senior police officers will today tell a
parliamentary inquiry.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,862118,00.html

http://www.cw360.com/bin/bladerunner?REQUNIQ=1040210216&REQSESS=Tj54A048&REQHOST=site1&2131REQEVENT=&CARTI=118349&CCAT=6&CCHAN=28&CFLAV=1

German court orders immediate ban on Nazi Web site
The German state government of North Rhine Westphalia (NRW)
has won one battle in its efforts to ban Web sites carrying
neo-Nazi content, but has yet to win the war. Last
Thursday, the administrative court in Arnsberg, Germany,
ordered an ISP (Internet service provider) to immediately
block access to objectionable sites, according to Jürgen
Schütte, an official with the NRW state government in
Düsseldorf, Germany. The ISP, whose name is being withheld,
filed a lawsuit earlier in the year against the state
government's ban, which was initiated in February, Schütte
said.

http://www.idg.com.sg/idgwww.nsf/unidlookup/2CBEEBE085A336EE48256C91000BC48B

Filters, Laws Won't Clean Up Net
Governments and other powers that be shouldn't try to
control the flow of information on the Web. That's just so
15th century.
 http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,56855,00.html

Nigerian Net Scam, Version 3.0 
In the latest iteration of the Nigerian e-mail swindle,
scammers pose as buyers interested in big-ticket items for
sale on the Net. Thanks to a little-known U.S. banking
loophole, they're bilking Americans out of thousands.
 http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,56829,00.html 

China detains poet for Internet articles
The latest Internet-related arrest has targeted an academic
who signed a protest letter.
 http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2127785,00.html

China detains Web democracy activists
China's Internet crackdown continues with the arrest of a
Web magazine publisher and an online protester.
 http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2127713,00.html

India's Short Message: We C U
The Indian government already requires ISPs and wireless
providers to monitor e-mail and cell-phone calls. Now it
wants to tap wireless text messages in an expanded effort
to root out terrorists.
 http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,56666,00.html

Arizona Inmates Back on the Net
Citing the First Amendment, a federal judge overturns an
Arizona state law that prohibited information about
prisoners from appearing online.
 http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,56880,00.html

Internet out of reach for poor
Almost half of all UK households now have access to the
internet - although the very poor and the elderly continue
to be largely excluded from the web, according to the
latest official statistics.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/netnews/story/0,12582,861703,00.html

AOL wins $7 million judgment in spam case
America Online has won a court judgment for nearly $7
million in damages against what it termed a "spam ring"
that bombarded AOL members with junk e-mail pitching adult
Web sites.

http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/678398p-5054961c.html
 http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2127638,00.html

Verdict Seen As Blow to DMCA 
The decision to acquit a Russian coding firm of piracy
charges will make it more difficult for the government to
prosecute such cases under the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act, some experts say.
 http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56898,00.html

Russian software firm acquitted of digital copyright
violation
A federal jury on Tuesday acquitted a Russian software firm
of digital copyright violations for creating a program that
cracks the security features of Adobe Systems' electronic
book software.

http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/678711p-5056311c.html
 http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56894,00.html
 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/18/technology/18DIGI.html
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2585661.stm
 http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1039054467587

DOD, wireless LAN industry debate 802.11a standard
IDG.net The U.S. Department of Defense and industry groups
are discussing ways to avoid interference between the next
generation of wireless LAN devices and military radars.
 http://virus.idg.net/ic_992832_1794_9-10000.html
 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-978219.html
 http://www.iht.com/articles/80678.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1268-2002Dec17.html
 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/17/technology/17WIRE.html


And on freedom of the press...
Journalists are under fire for telling the truth
First it was Roger Ailes, the chairman of the Fox News
Channel, who advised the US President to take the "harshest
measures possible" against those who attacked America on 11
September, 2001.

Let us forget, for a moment, that Fox News's Jerusalem
bureau chief is Uri Dan, a friend of Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon and the author of the preface of the new
edition of Sharon's autobiography, which includes a
revolting account of the Sabra and Chatila massacre of
1,700 Palestinian civilians and Sharon's innocence in this
slaughter. Then Ted Koppel, one of America's leading news
anchormen, announced that it may be a journalist's duty not
to reveal events until the military want them revealed in a
new war against Iraq.

Can we go any further in journalistic cowardice? Oh yes, we
can. ABC television announced, a little while ago, that it
knew all about the killing of four al-Qa'ida members by an
unmanned "Predator" plane in Yemen but delayed broadcasting
the news for four days "at the request of the Pentagon." So
now at least we know for whom ABC works.


http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=362545


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=====
David Goldstein
 email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au
 phone: +61 418 228 605 - mobile; +61 2 9665 0015 - home

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